Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to control of an information processing apparatus having a near-field wireless communication unit.
Description of the Related Art
To set user data and service data to an image forming apparatus such as a multi function peripheral (MFP), or to read the data from the image forming apparatus, conventionally, it has been always necessary to turn on the image forming apparatus and establish communication between the image forming apparatus and a device such as a personal computer.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-100307 proposes a technique for accessing a memory for near-field communication by power supply from a system when the system is in operation, and accessing the memory for near-field communication by communication radio waves from an external reader and writer device when the system is not in operation.
When the image forming apparatus having a near-field wireless communication unit exchanges information according to the communication from the external reader and writer device, the information can be categorized into two types: information that can be exchanged without energization of the image forming apparatus body, and information that cannot be exchanged without energization of the image forming apparatus body. In the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-100307, in exchanging the information that cannot be exchanged without energization of the image forming apparatus body, an operator is required to determine whether to energize the MFP to perform the exchange of the information. The determination of whether to energize the image forming apparatus body depending on such attributes of information is left to the operator, which is very bothersome, and may cause mis-operation.
To avoid the above-described mis-operation, when the image forming apparatus communicates with the external reader and writer device, it is expected that, as a standard operation, the image forming apparatus is always turned on to perform the communication. The method of always turning on the image forming apparatus, however, may cause inefficient operations, and unnecessary power consumption.